Nantucket candle store owner Stella Wright specializes in creating unique candles for every occasion. But someone sets the stage for murder when a Memorial Day celebration becomes a wedding to die for . . . Jessica Sterling’s candlelight-themed nuptials promises to be the perfect kick-off to the summer’s first official holiday weekend. Stella’s thrilled to have been chosen to provide the … chosen to provide the decorative centerpiece for the wedding ceremony: a two-foot-tall scented unity candle—a symbol of the happy couple’s love. But it looks like the bride-to-be’s uncle won’t be walking his niece down the aisle after he’s found dead. The murder weapon is Stella’s seemingly indestructible candle, now split in two.
When a beloved local bartender is arrested, Stella’s sure a visiting police captain running the case made a rush to justice. With superstitious brides-to-be canceling orders and sales waxing and waning at her store, the Wick & Flame owner decides to do some sleuthing of her own. Abetted by a charming reporter and challenged by the town’s sexiest cop, Stella’s determined to shine a light on the truth and uncover a killer who’s snuffing out her own flame.
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A charmingly fun whodunnit with plenty of twists and turns and delightfully quirky characters. Murder’s No Votive Confidence had me hooked from the first pages.
This is the first book in the debut cozy mystery series by Ms. Brecher, who is a new to me author. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a solid start to the series. Stella Wright is an amiable character who I think reader will enjoy. It was fun to read about her first sleuthing adventure and I think the series has potential. I thought the secondary cast of characters could have been a bit more developed. There is a lot of potential with Stella’s family and her best friend so I am hopeful the author will develop these characters to be more dimensional. The murder victim was not well liked so there was a limited pool of suspects, but I thought the author did a good job of throwing out clues to confuse readers as to the identity of the real killer. I was however a bit disappointed by the identity of the killer and their reason for committing the crime. The other aspect of the book that gave me pause is the potential love triangle the author may be setting up between Stella and two of the secondary characters. I am not a fan of that particular story line and it is one that will typically cause me to stop reading a series if it is carried on for too long.
All in all, this was a quick read and a solid start to a new series. In the next book I hope the author develops the secondary cast of characters, the potential love triangle is resolved or does not come to fruition and I would like to see the killer/suspect with a less cliche motive for committing the crime.
I voluntarily read a digital ARC provided to me by the publisher through Netgalley.